Bali Immigration Arrests 24 African Citizens Who Are Overstayed And Allegedly Involved In Fraud

DENPASAR - The Ngurah Rai Immigration Office in Bali arrested 24 foreign nationals (WNA) from the African region, namely Nigeria, Tanzania, and Ghana for allegedly being involved in fraud cases and violating the stay permit rules.

"We received a WhatsApp message from the public who reported that foreigners were suspected of being overstaying and committing fraud," said Head of the Ngurah Immigration Office, Rai Suhendra in Denpasar, Friday, May 31.

He detailed the 24 foreigners, the most from Nigeria, as many as 22 people, all of whom were male and on average young, namely 23-35 years old.

The rest, one foreigner each from Tanzania and Ghana.

The arrest of foreigners began with a public report via a message based on the official WhatsApp application Ngurah Rai Immigration in number 081236956667.

The report states that there are three Nigerian foreigners, one of whom has the initials the 23-year-old man, is suspected of being involved in a fraud case and violating the old stay rule or overstay.

The three foreigners were later arrested by the Intelligence and Immigration Enforcement Officer (Inteljakim) Ngurah Rai on Tuesday (28/5) in the Legian tourist area, Badung Regency.

Dari hasil pemeriksaan ketiga WNA itu ternyata melewati masa tinggal lebih dari 60 hari.

Then, officers dug up the statements of the three and developed the arrests.

Furthermore, Inteldakim arrested 21 other foreigners on Wednesday (29/5) consisting of 19 Nigerian citizens and one foreign national from Ghana and Tanzania in the West Denpasar region, respectively.

Suhendra said as many as nine foreigners were also unable to show travel documents in the form of passports.

His party is also still investigating further the foreigner from the African continent who is suspected of being involved in a fraud case.

Currently, Immigration is temporarily detaining three foreigners at the Ngurah Rai Immigration Office while 21 other foreigners are temporarily detained at the Denpasar Immigration Detention Center.

"We will process it in accordance with applicable regulations and regulations," added Suhendra.

Meanwhile, based on data from the Bali Kemenkumham Regional Office, during January-14 May 2024, a total of 142 foreigners were deported, the most were carried out through Immigration Ngurah Rai as many as 84 people.

Meanwhile, during 2023 340 foreigners were deported or increased compared to 2022, which reached 188 foreigners being expelled from Bali.